Canberra - Melbourne - Great Ocean Road

By: Kristin

After Blue Mtns. we drove to Canberra (the nation's capital) and it was COLD. Probably the coldest we have felt in Australia....around -3 celcius and when the wind blows...it felt cold! We spent 2 nights at the YHA in the city and were spoiled with a TV in our room...nice!

We went to the War Memorial Museum (which was awesome....so well displayed) and we were among many school groups..oh how I miss teaching! (I know, my time will come...) Also, we watched the Prime Minister of Singapore walk to his car. There were secret agent looking people everywhere as we walked up to the museum and then a couple of news reporters and camera crew.

Next, we spent the afternoon driving 30 minutes out of the city to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to do some walking and looking at nature! IT was cooooold and we saw ICE on the ponds! We walked some short boardwalks and then went back to the city. But as we were driving out there were 'heaps' of 'roos and wallabies feeding on the grass. I got out of the car a couple of times and walked up to them..they are fairly tame and don't even mind that you are there.

Bren with some ice from the pond on our walk outside of Canberra...ice in June? New concept!

A group of 'roos at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

That night, we went out to a local pub to watch the second "state of origin" rugby league game. This is a HUGE 3 game series between the New South Wales team and the Queensland team. A true cultural experience! Especially when you meet a couple of local Aussie blokes to keep you entertained at the bar (in addition to the game on TV).

We spent the next couple of days driving to Melbourne (temp. averaging 15 degrees during the day). We knew that the coastal route would be nice but as the weather is a little colder now driving along the coast and NOT being able to swim was getting a little tiring so we went inland to Mebourne. And we were so lucky to be able to stay with Brendon's cousin and family in Mel. We stayed 3 nights there....hit up the Queen Victoria Markets on Sunday and just spent the day on Monday exploring the city.

At Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria. This is where they showed the Socceroo's World Cup games...just for those who haven't been keeping posted on the 'roo's: won against Japan, got beat by Brazil, and tied against Croatia and so moved on to the final sixteen but got beat by Italy (1-0) on a penalty kick in the last minute of the game. Bren had fun watching 2 of the games (the Japan game at 11pm and the Croatia game at 5am...I enjoyed the recaps during the day!)

A pic of part of Melbourne city looking across the river.

Tuesday (this is now June 20) we headed off again. This time to the famous "Great Ocean Road". It took about an hour and a half to get to the start of the coastal route and the first stop was in Torquay (the "official" surfing capital of Australia). There is one shopping area where there are all the surfwear/gear outlet stores (Billabong, Ripcurl, Roxy, Quicksilver)...Brendon was the only one to buy something (if you can believe it!). Then to Bells Beach where they host some pro surfing competitions (mostly in the summer)...but there were tons (maybe close to 50) surfers all in their wetsuits hitting the surf. Such fun to watch! We made our way down the road to Lorne where we stayed the night.

Some sufer's at Bells Beach...brrrr a little chilly for me.

"Great Ocean Road" sign and "Drive left in Australia" sign to the left.

Along the coast of the Southern Ocean

Next day we decided we would probably make it the rest of the way (the whole stretch of road is about 350km) and so got up and started our twisting and turning along the coast. The weather was cloudy but it was still pretty nice. We stopped to do a quick hike through the rainforest and also took a detour to the Cape Ottway lighthouse (didn't actually pay to go into the light house). But on our way out we came to a bend in the road and there were about 5-6 cars just stopped on the road and a group of people looking up into the trees. YES! It was a Koala!!! And it was awake and really close to the ground on a low branch. So we got a couple of pictures. We actually saw three in total but the others were much higher in other trees.

Got to the famous "12 Apostles" around 3pm and the rain started to fall. Still was a beautiful sight even though we had to get all dressed up in our rain pants and rain jackets. It seemed like at the end of the G.O.R there were tons of stops and things to see along the coast line and so it was too bad that it was raining. But we did see a lot. Interesting side note: there are places to stop along the road every 300 metres or so to either take a picture or let the cars behind you pass. And after each of these stopping places there is a small sign on the side of the road: "Drive on Left in Australia"....we thought that to be quite amusing but it makes sense since so many people driving the road are tourists and many will rent a car for a couple of days and drive from Melbourne.

The 12 Apostles.

More cool rock formations.